Attending and participating in board meetings – Face-to-face attendance is required unless geographic or economic conditions present a significant challenge;
Participating and contributing to the organization’s initiatives in the capacity of project manager and/or task volunteer – Access for Sight Impaired Consumers has a working board which requires the participation, either through volunteer contributions of time, experience or expertise, of its board members to achieve its goals;
Attending the Annual General Meeting – Again, face-to-face attendance is required. AGM’s are usually held during the first quarter of the calendar year.
Responsibilities of Board Members:
Reviewing relevant materials prior to a regular or annual general meeting of the board – Meeting packages are distributed via e-mail usually in MS-Word or Excel formats. The use of portable document format (.pdf) is minimal and is used only when submitted by a third party;
Timely completion of assigned tasks – Responding to the organization’s e-mail postings, conducting telephone calls, letter writing or completing other assigned tasks or action items is a critical contribution and necessary to the success of our working team;
Sharing knowledge of blindness-related systemic issues which have a negative impact on British Columbians who are blind, deafblind or sight impaired- These include issues that individuals with vision loss or other related organizations may raise;
Viewing issues through different degrees of vision loss – While one’s experience lies with a particular level of vision loss, it is critical to view each issue through various lenses. If totally blind, the perspective from the person who is sight impaired is important or vice versa;
Disseminating information out to the community – It is imperative we speak about our initiatives including successes and failures. Speaking about our projects with community members, reporting at other meetings you attend, posting on your Facebook page, your Twitter account, list serves, blogs, web sites or any other source is a major part of board members’ responsibilities. Our work is not a secret!
Operate within a respectful environment – Healthy and vigorous debate is often the pathway to reaching a concensus in a democratic setting. All board members are encouraged to present their opinions and views. Each board member should consider each other’s viewpoint in a respectful manner, especially when a fellow board member’s is in opposition to their own.
Solidarity – The Access for Sight Impaired Consumers Board operates within a democratic environment and lively debate inside the boardroom is encouraged. However, once a majority decision is reached, all board members are expected to support and promote decisions of the Board when speaking to the issue outside the boardroom.
